Sunday, January 31, 2010

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

This week we begin a new chapter in the serial book I am now tentatively naming, "The Wisdom of Foolishness." This chapter is dedicated to the idea of freedom, with a focus both on the theology of the human will and the importance of grace to our conscience. The introduction to the chapter begins our discussion with questioning the meaning of the word "freedom," while the section "Deep Raving," begins to explore what the Bible has to say about the goodness of both freedom and slavery.

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There is no such thing as freedom.

Freedom is a relative term. Free with regard to what? Free to live? Free to die? Free to help others? Free to commit evil? While the Bible talks about freedom regularly, this freedom always has a reference – it is with regard to something. Anarchy, the freedom to do whatever you want whenever you want it, is a very different thing than the liberty of being forgiven for your sins by the sacrifice of the cross of Jesus Christ.1

If you want the first freedom, the anarchy, you might be free from God and societal ideas, but the irony is that you are still a slave – you are bound to yourself, trapped in the limits and confines of whatever it is you want.2 You might even find that what you want is so much a tyrant over you that you have no freedom at all, but are more like a mist driven by any storm that passes by.3

The second freedom, the freedom which comes in Christ, is a freedom of conscience before God.4 It flows out of a faith in the pure goodness of Jesus which releases you with great liberty to good, to love and to serve others.5 Yet, here as well, this is the freedom of slavery, of being bound to Christ like a vine is to a branch, of being a servant to all that you meet.6 For humans there is no such thing as pure freedom. Every single one of us is a slave to something. The real question is not “How can I be more free?” The real question is “How can I be more of a slave to the right master?”7

Deep Raving

This is all to introduce the idea that there is no such thing as a completely free will, at least, Biblically speaking. Especially in American Christian life, that little term has been the heart of no small debate, misunderstanding and, again ironically, much mental slavery. It also rests at the very root of what it means to receive and believe the Bible's pure teaching on the justification of our sin before God by his mercy through the promises we receive in faith. All of this is heartily wrapped up in what it means to be an American, to be a people who were forged in the casting off of monarchy and the power of self-reliance.

But the closest the Bible ever comes to teaching an absolutely “free will” is in the terrible section of Romans chapter one, where St. Paul tells us that God releases sinners to the freedom of their own sins, misdirected passions and reckless desires.8 That is the truly free human will. It is the worst kind of slavery. It is slavery to our own depravity.9

Before we go further, it's only fair to give you a heads up: the purpose of this book, from start to finish, is not to tread lightly. The goal is to lay out as succinctly as possible the many fantastic revelations of the Holy Scriptures of Jesus Christ which have vanished from a majority of 21st century American pulpits. Every topic could have entire books written about it – they have had entire books written about them.10 This book is not written for skeptics who are looking to be wooed. It is for seekers, learners, disciples and the authentically curious. It is for those who just want to know “what the Bible actually says.”

With all of that said, it is more than likely that, whoever you are, this chapter will still be the most aggravating in the book for anyone who has grown up under the pioneer ethos of the American identity. The Bible's teaching on your “will” will rub against the grain of what seems most natural. It will test your metal in your willingness to be challenged. And, for these reasons, it will be the most powerful, life-changing, faith-giving, hope-inspiring chapter in the book.

True freedom with regard to what Jesus creates for us in himself marks is the true final breaking point in wrestling with the foolishness of God's Wisdom. It is all downhill from here. Like Jacob the Patriarch, who met God face to face at the Jabbok ford, it is a fight you will have to lose in order to win.11 It will put your spiritual hip out of joint. It will be a breaking that comes with a blessing. Here, to be injured is to be healed, to be weak is to be strong, and to submit to a yoke which is gentle and light is to be eternally released from the yoke of depraved slavery.12

So keep reading! So far we have learned what the Bible teaches about how we humans are naturally obstinate, self-willed and egocentric. Such “wills,” held in bondage to their freedom to be selfish, will normally rebel against Jesus' free gift of slavery to goodness, which means the death of our wicked freedom to be selfish.13 Be forewarned: at this moment of true liberty, the devil's last line of defense will not be some spiritual voodoo-darkness floating out in the ether and aeons of the cosmos. Now he will retreat to his rag-tag fortress to man its bulwarks against Christ's full Gospel. That fortress is your (sort of) “free” will.---------1. 2 Peter 2:16 “Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.”

2. John 8:34 “Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.”

3. 2 Peter 17, 19 “These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm.... They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved.”

4. Hebrews 9:9 “The blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, [will] purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.”

5. 1 Timothy 1:5 “The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.”

6. Romans 6:22 “But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.”

7. 1 John 5:4 “For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.” Luke 16:13 “No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”

8. Romans 1:24, 26, 28 “God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity....God gave them up to dishonorable passions.... God gave them up to a debased mind....”

9. Romans 6:15 “you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?”Titus 3:3 “For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.”

10. The bibliography at the back of the books provides a good starting point for those who want to do more research on classical Christian orthodoxy.

11. Genesis 32:22-32

12. Galatians 5:1 “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”Matthew 11:29-30 “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

13. Romans 6:16 “Having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.”

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

This week marks the last section in chapter 4, "Goodness." So far we have explored the idea that the value of a human is not first and foremost in what he does, but in who he is. Learning from Jesus that God alone is good, we began to reassess what we mean by the word "goodness" in order to learn that there are two kinds of "goodness." What we do is one kind, and, while good, it cannot conquer death. We need the kind of goodness only God does.

In the section "Of Earth and Heaven" we further explored the differences between these kinds of goodness, especially seeing how it is by pursuing our own "doing" goodness in place of God's "given" goodness that Adam and Eve first fell in the first place. We also saw how perfect our own "doing" goodness ought to be and faced the sad fact that our attempts at it are not "good" enough. On top of that, the goodness we need most, outside of Jesus, is terribly missing.

In "Cows and Arithmetic," we explore the purpose of the Ten Commandments as a blueprint for "doing goodness," and tackle the tough reality that what the commands demand they do not help us achieve. We also learned that humans respond two different ways to this realization about our limitations. One is to repent. The other is to reject even "doing" goodness altogether.

In "Beggars and Life-Guards," we contemplate how continuing to try to please God in the face of our predicament is not only the continuation of our original sin, but the greatest hindrance to our receiving the one thing we need most.

Last week, in "Good People Go to Hell," we look at the doctrine of how all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a free gift in Christ our Lord.

This week, we finish the chapter by pointing fingers in "Who's to Blame"

-------The world always teaches the same false religion. It says, “Do this,” and “Do that,” and “ you will become good.” But the work is never done.1 There is always farther to go. The religion of the God who has revealed himself in Jesus says something altogether different. He says, “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. I will die and I will rise.” And then everything is done already.

The world will always try to pull you back: lead a moral life, meditate, transcend and discipline, buy this book, use this prayer, love yourself, make a difference, dream big – then you will find the goodness you're looking for.2 But God has declared that in Christ you have the goodness already. You don't need to overcome the world. In Jesus, you have overcome the world already.3 You don't need to run from death. In Jesus, you are alive forever already.4

And you don't need to try to be more good in order to find peace of conscience. In Jesus, you have the right kind of goodness – completely and fully and forever – already.5 It's not about what you do. It is completely separated from everything that you have ever done, and for that very reason it is more certain and founded than anything else in your life has ever been.6 It does not need to be turned, applied, practiced or effected. It is finished. God has said that your value does not lie in what you do, but in who you are now because of what Jesus has done for you.7

Please, feel free to believe it: Christ has pleased God, and that means that, in him, you please God. Period. It is not a matter of your work. It is because you are being worked on by Jesus. God does not smile on anyone because of their operating in all the “right” ways. God smiles on everyone whom his Son is performing an operation on.

This is absolutely a matter of semantics. This is all about Words – God's Words – God's promises – and we still have much to explore and learn from the Bible in this regard. But for now, understand that where you and I seek out things and people to love because we think they are worth loving, this is not the way of God. His goodness is different. When God wants to love something, he doesn't go out to discover something to love. He creates it. When he wants to be pleased, he pleases himself by creating pleasure. And it is his pleasure to make you to object of his pleasure. Unearned. Underserved. Not done by you. A different kind of goodness. Given.8

Jesus is the only Way of salvation because Jesus is the only goodness that doesn't depend on what you do. Jesus saves without your payment.9 Jesus saves without reservations. Jesus was born, lived, died and rose from the grave because you (and all the world with you) were worthless, but by his goodness he is making you (and all the world with you) worthy again with his worthiness. Even this is not about what we will do now, but about who we are now in him. You were a traitor in the enemy's camp, but now you are an heir to the throne of the King.10 You were a beggar dressed in rags, but now you are a wedding guest dressed in a white robe.11 You were a seed of the devil's lies, but now you are a Son of the Living God.

You had a cramp, went under the water, had your lungs filled, and were as good as dead. But Jesus dived in (he didn't even take his shoes off!) and pulled you out. He did the CPR, shoved on your belly till you coughed up the water and breathed air into your lungs. He even left you on a boat that will never sin, no matter what kind of floods and rage this world may still have left in it.

You were (and often still are) a worker of evil. But Jesus has made you also a work of grace. There are two kinds of goodness, and in Christ there is no condemnation because he is the source of the better one. In God's sight, even though you might never have done one good thing in your whole life, you are a far better person than you ever dreamed. And for once, the only righteous thing you can do about it is blame it on Somebody Else.

---------1. James 2:10 “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it.”2. Colossians 2:21-22 ““Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” 22 (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? 23 These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.”3. John 16:33 “In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”4. John 11:25 “Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life.[1] Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.”5. 1 Timothy 1:3,5 “Charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine.... The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.”6. Titus 3:5 “He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy.”7. 1 John 5:4 “For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.”8. Hosea 2:23 “I will have mercy on No Mercy, and I will say to Not My People, ‘You are my people’; and he shall say, ‘You are my God.’ ”9. 1 Peter 1:18-19 “You were ransomed...not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ.”10. Galatians 4:7 “So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.”11. Revelation 7:9 “I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands.”

Pastor Fisk will be a guest on the radio show, Issues, Etc, as part of a "Pastors Round Table" discussion of Articles 7 & 8 of the Apology of the Augsburg Confession: The Church. The show is live from 4-6pm Eastern time. The Pastors Round Table will be during the four o'clock hour. You can also always listen later at the website.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

So far, in "Chapter 4: Goodness" We have explored the idea that the value of a human is not first and foremost in what he does, but in who he is. Learning from Jesus that God alone is good, we began to reassess what we mean by the word "goodness" in order to learn that there are two kinds of "goodness." What we do is one kind, and, while good, it cannot conquer death. We need the kind of goodness only God does.In the section "Of Earth and Heaven" we further explored the differences between these kinds of goodness, especially seeing how it is by pursuing our own "doing" goodness in place of God's "given" goodness that Adam and Eve first fell in the first place. We also saw how perfect our own "doing" goodness ought to be and faced the sad fact that our attempts at it are not "good" enough. On top of that, the goodness we need most, outside of Jesus, is terribly missing.In "Cows and Arithmetic," we explore the purpose of the Ten Commandments as a blueprint for "doing goodness," and tackle the tough reality that what the commands demand they do not help us achieve. We also learned that humans respond two different ways to this realization about our limitations. One is to repent. The other is to reject even "doing" goodness altogether.In "Beggars and Life-Guards," we contemplate how continuing to try to please God in the face of our predicament is not only the continuation of our original sin, but the greatest hindrance to our receiving the one thing we need most.Today, in "Good People Go to Hell," we look at the doctrine of how all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a free gift in Christ our Lord.

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The life which you strive to live can be a very good thing.1 Honor and justice, rare as they seem to be in the United States, are real, and they are wonderful. The right and duty to pursue goodness, to be “civilized,” is a true reflection of how God created the world to be. Love, chivalry, service – these are virtues.2 Being virtuous is not a spiritual crime. It is God's will for us, even as we dwell in this veil of tears. But morality is not what Christianity is about.3 Christianity is about the Christ.4

This has become very unpopular in recent years. The Bible's clear teaching that no person who dies outside of Jesus will escape being cast into hell5 doesn't jive well with the countless others “standards” of “goodness” that we have run around setting up. This is where our understanding of the two kinds of goodness becomes incredibly helpful.

When Christians run around saying that “Jesus is the only way to heaven,” we make very little sense to a world that understands “goodness” primarily a matter of what a person does or does not do. “Believe in Jesus or you'll go to hell” is is not very good news. It makes Jesus into a problem. But the problem is not that everyone who doesn't accept Jesus is going to hell. The problem is that everyone is going to hell to begin with.6

Even the best people – the most civil, the truly upright – everyone who dies and is buried does so because they are flesh born of this fallen world.7 Even the real goodness that most of us do manage from time to time is not the kind of goodness needed to remove this curse of “sin.”8 Death and spiritual evil are not overcome through moral, human actions. To overcome these things, you need God's holiness. So, the reason people who don't have Jesus' blood covering them will go to hell, the reason Jesus is the only way to salvation, is because he is the only human who actually has that kind of goodness.9

The life, death and resurrection of Jesus, as the one man who was infused with God's essential, holy goodness, is actually enough to be the bearer of a new epoch of humanity altogether.10 This is the great miracle of that better kind of goodness. It is not only good enough to help otherwise “good” people not go to hell. It is good enough to help bad people – sinners like you – go to paradise.11

Even the filthiest rags of your life – the hidden secrets, the past regrets, the deepest lies – all of your wickedness, in Jesus, is completely justified by the sheer holiness of his better kind of goodness.12 Where human spirituality, temperance and good conduct, by themselves amount to little more than vanity, inside of who Jesus is and what he did, all human unbelief, extravagance and bad conduct are made nothing less than completely holy.13

This is not an excuse. This is redemption.14 God has said that your every last action is damning and that the best efforts of your life are fallen, but with this hard truth comes his gracious promise that, at the same time, all your greatest failures and most wicked, hidden thoughts can no longer condemn you because they have been taken away by the person and work of Jesus.15 With all that you are able to do already condemned (along with the rest of the world), even your worst mistakes are wiped clean and made perfect (in the perfection of Jesus.) This pure grace alone gives you the freedom to confess that your situation is indeed dire, even evil, but your need to undo the evil has been completely undone by the complete forgiveness of that evil in the resurrection of God's Christ.16

Faith and repentance are then a life of calling these things what they are. Half of the story is continuing to face your own heart and works honestly, recognizing that no matter what other men may think of you, the true judge is the Law of God. The other half of the story is discovering both the beauty of the Law – how it teaches one to rightly love other people – and the beauty of the Gospel – how there is a better goodness which can never be achieved because it is always, always given.17

The crucified Son of God is a thing that the world will and does call a great evil, but God proclaims it the greatest good in the history of the world. It is a better goodness, one that even good people cannot earn, yet one that even bad people can receive. It is the only way to be saved.18 You cannot do it. It is done, once and for all, in the lashes, blood, thorns and cross of Jesus the Christ,19 and, for that reason, it can only be believed. That is the entire point.20

---------1. Romans 3:31 “Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.”2. Philippians 4:8 “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”3. Romans 2:14-15 “When Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them.”4. Acts 11:19-26 “Now those who were scattered...who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Hellenists also, preaching the Lord Jesus. ...And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians.”5. John 14:6 “Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'”6. Psalm 89:48 “What man can live and never see death? Who can deliver his soul from the power of Sheol?”Romans 11:32 “For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.”7. Romans 6:23 “The wages of sin is death.”8. Romans 3:20 “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight.”9. 1 Corinthians 1:30 “Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption.”10. Romans 5:17 “If, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.”11. Mark 2:17 “When Jesus heard it, he said to them, 'Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.' ”12. 1 Corinthians 16:11 “You were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”13. Romans 10:4 “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.”14. Ephesians 1:7 “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace.”15. Colossians 2:13-14 “You, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.”16. 1 Peter 1:3 “He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”17. John 10:9 [Jesus said,] “I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.”18. John 15:16 “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide....”19. Romans 6:10 “The death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.”20. Ephesians 2:8 “By grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.”

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Monday, January 04, 2010

So far, in "Chapter 4: Goodness" We have explored the idea that the value of a human is not first and foremost in what he does, but in who he is. Learning from Jesus that God alone is good, we began to reassess what we mean by the word "goodness" in order to learn that there are two kinds of "goodness." What we do is one kind, and, while good, it cannot conquer death. We need the kind of goodness only God does.

In the section "Of Earth and Heaven" we further explored the differences between these kinds of goodness, especially seeing how it is by pursuing our own "doing" goodness in place of God's "given" goodness that Adam and Eve first fell in the first place. We also saw how perfect our own "doing" goodness ought to be and we faced the sad fact that our attempts at it are not "good" enough. On top of that, the goodness we need most, outside of Jesus, is terribly missing.

In "Cows and Arithmetic," we explore the purpose of the Ten Commandments as a blueprint for "doing goodness," and tackle the tough reality that what the commands demand they do not help us achieve. We also learned that humans respond two different ways to this realization about our limitations. One is to repent. The other is to reject even "doing" goodness altogether.

This week, in "Beggars and Life-Guards,"

The answers to these problems, I pray you know, are in Jesus. As the book progresses this will be come clearer and clearer, spelled out in no uncertain terms. For this week, we continue to explore the depths of our malady, trusting that the more we know about our sin, the better we will appreciate our Savior.

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Fallen man needs the goodness that comes from God. But the more you try to get close to God by doing whatever it is you can do – the more you work in order to make yourself good or find a worthiness within yourself – the more you actually drive a wedge between yourself and the Creator who never intended you to be a creator of goodness in the first place.1 In fact, trying to create a goodness that is not God's own goodness is the worst kind of sin. It is the original sin, the sin on which all other sins have been built.2 It is a crass unbelief in who God actually is.

What once was Adam's denial that God alone was good, for you becomes a spiritual quest to lift yourself off the earth and into heaven by pulling on the straps of your boots.3 The greater your efforts, the more you yank, the harder you squeeze your eyes shut to tap the strength within, the less you are able to look up and see the Christ who came down from heaven to earth to deal with a problem that was out of your reach to begin with. He hung on the cross for the purpose of lifting you up. He ascended into heaven on your behalf – and all by himself.

It is kind of like a beggar who is dressed in filthy rags, but is confronted with the glorious gift of a fresh, clean, white robe. Not knowing any better, he begins to wipe his face on the robe, dusting off his hands and blowing his nose into it. To his own eyes, he seems a little cleaner, and he is heartily thankful for the robe. But before long, the robe is filthy and cast aside as he wanders on, still wearing the same filthy rags.4

Christ's kind of goodness is very different than the super-pious, spiritual mumbo-jumbo of men. It is strange and even offensive precisely because at its root it points out that even all the truly good works that you actually do manage to pull off are never anything more than an beggars' clothing. It tells you that all that all that you do in your entire life will never be enough. And at the same time it insists that one, bloody, crucified corpse is more than enough real goodness, not only for you, but for all the world.5

This cannot help but grate a little on the human ego. It flies in the face of all our pride. It sets limitations and draws a line in the sand. The one who wants to hold onto his own goodness will not be able to receive this better goodness. One or the other goodness must actually be the True Good. Just as there cannot be two masters and there cannot be two Creators, it is the extreme height of Spiritual irresponsibility to try to be good enough to please God with your own goodness. This is to try to be God.

The spiritual beggar who wants to dress himself up in rags makes his deepest and most heartfelt belief the sad notion that the one thing he does not need is a Savior.6 When a swimmer gets a cramp and begins to drown, a lifeguard's task is to pull that swimmer out of the water. But there is one thing that the swimmer must not do. The swimmer must stop trying to actually swim. If he does not cease his efforts to save himself, then he will drown both himself and the life-guard.---------

1. Isaiah 1:12-15 “When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts? Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations—I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood.”2. Genesis 3:6 “When the woman saw that the tree was...to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.”3. Isaiah 14:13-15 “You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’ But you are brought down to Sheol, to the far reaches of the pit.”4. Confer with Matthew 22:1-145. 1 Corinthians 1:23-24 “We preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”6. Proverbs 14:9 “Fools mock at the guilt offering, but the upright enjoy acceptance.”